Think Yourself Happy!

With February being a month when we celebrate Valentine’s Day and bring that little bit more attention to the loved ones, we must not forget about self- care and self-love.

One of the ways to do that is to create a habit of positive thinking. Since our thoughts create our reality, we want them to be thoughts of joy and fulfilment.

Well, easier said that done sometimes, right?

With a lot of things going on in past twelve months with the pandemic, restrictions on seeing family and friends or participating in activities that we enjoy, we may be more than ever prone to low mood and unhelpful thinking, worry or negative self-talk.

This unhelpful, thinking can really affect how we feel and what we do.

However, there are many ways of trying to fight that.

One of them is THE AMAZING BAD THOUGHT BUSTING PROGRAMME-a simple five step programme to stop negative thoughts from escalating and affecting how we feel.

Here are the steps:

Label the thought: For example, you may find yourself taking things to heart, beating yourself up, having gloomy view of the future, being your own worst critic, jumping to the worst conclusions etc.

When you start getting one of these unhelpful thoughts, label it: “Oh, that’s just one of the unhelpful thoughts”. Once you label it that way, you will see that it loses its power and is only one of the bad thoughts.

Leave it alone. Let it be. Take a step back and don’t give it attention. Instead choose to think about what you are doing at that moment.

Stand up to it. If the thought says that you can’t, say to yourself – ‘yes, I can’. If the thought says ‘don’t’, do it. You may find that because of your thought you have been avoiding doing things or talking to people. So say ‘yes’ to things more often and enjoy doing what you like.

Give yourself a break- don’t say things to yourself that you wouldn’t say to a friend or someone that you love. Be kind to yourself.

Imagine the situation differently. Put the worry or thought into perspective. Will it matter in six month time? Will you even remember what the worry was? If it won’t matter then, it may not matter now.

Also think what others would do. Imagine a person who handles problems well and try to think how they would handle the problem.

So next time you start having any unhelpful thoughts, stop and try these few steps. It may appear that things are not all that bad.